Marinette spent a long, miserable night on a stone cot. It seemed that Gabriel had a makeshift prison below his palace, and Marinette was not surprised that she was expected to stay there. Until she could prove that she was a worthy wife for Adrien, she was Gabriel's prisoner. There was no other way to describe her situation.

The next morning, Gabriel's servants returned to take Marinette to face her second task. They said nothing, as they had the previous night, and lead her up through the halls of the palace until once again Marinette stood before her godly captor.

"Are you feeling more cooperative today?" He asked, but Marinette stayed silent. He stared her down for a while, his glare intensifying with each passing moment, but Marinette refused to say a word. "Well then, I'll just assume that you had a pleasant evening, and I will give you the same hospitality tonight, if you can prove you deserve to stay here." He raised his nose in disgust when looking at the girl in front of him. "And I honestly doubt you'll be able to accomplish today's task."

He walked over to a nearby window. "A good wife needs to be able to mend her husband's clothes, or make him new ones if he needs them." He turned back to her. "Just a little ways down the road, you'll find my personal pasture. There you'll have to gather materials and come back with a garment fit for a god. You must accomplish this task before the sun goes down, or you will not return. Is this understood?"

Marinette nodded and bowed. "Of course, my lord." She said, smiling. She knew she could make clothes. It was one of the few things she actually enjoyed.

"Well then, you'd better get to work."


When Marinette reached the pasture, she stopped dead in her tracks. The sheep weren't normal sheep. They were large, had golden wool, and large, shark-like teeth.

She now understood the difficulty of the day's task. She knew that, if she approached the sheep to get wool, she would be eaten alive.

She took a deep breath and looked around. There had to be some way to get the wool. She saw a nearby tree, and she thought at first that she could wait until the sheep fell asleep, and then she could use a stick to gather wool. But the branches she could reach weren't long enough to really keep her safe.

There was also a stream nearby with some reeds, and she thought that perhaps she could try and lure a sheep into the stream where some of its wool could get caught on rocks as the sheep floated past. But the current was not that fast, and if she had to make something with the wool, she should probably avoid getting it wet. Wool took too long to dry, and she didn't have much time.

She walked over to the stream and sat on a rock, trying to think of a way past this, when suddenly she heard a faint voice from beside her.

"Hey, Marinette."

She looked around, half expecting to see another ant nearby, but nothing moved. There was only the smooth flow of the stream and the reeds as they flowed in the breeze.

Marinette looked back over to the pasture, but then the voice spoke up again. "Marinette, look down here!"

Marinette looked down. "Hello? Is someone there?"

The reeds seemed to nod in reply. "Yes. I'm talking to you through the reeds so the master of the pastures doesn't know I'm here."

Marinette listened to the voice intently, trying to figure out who was speaking. "Excuse me, kind reeds, but do I know you?"

The reeds chuckled. "Yeah, you know me. And I'm here to help you. I'm not letting my best friend mope around his dad's house for a century, especially when the person who made him depressed is working so hard to make it up to him."

Marinette smiled. She knew who the voice in the reeds belonged to. "Oh, well thank you. I'm glad to hear you've forgiven me, although I'm not sure I deserve it. I've barely done anything."

If reeds could shake their head, these would have. "You've walked for days, persisted in demanding an audience with a god, and found a way to deal with the first task, even if you did get a little help."

"But you were the one to tell me to do all those things."

"True, but I didn't know you'd actually go through with them. It takes a lot of courage to stand up to him, even for the gods. The man is seriously intimidating." The reeds shook, as if trying to be reassuring. "But complimenting you is not the main reason I'm here. I'm here to help you through this task." The reeds bent over towards the pastures. "Look over there. You see those big dark bushes?" Marinette nodded. "Around midday, these sheep will go to the other side of the pasture. When that happens, you can go to those bushes and gather what you need."

Marinette nodded in understanding. "Thank you, reeds."

The reeds nodded slightly. "Just keep going. If anyone can prove that they're worthy of my friend, it's you." There was another sudden gust of wind, and the reeds became still.


A few hours passed. Marinette had pulled two small branches from the nearby tree, and a sharp rock from the shore of the stream, and had fashioned herself a pair of crude needles. Her father often received visitors from foreign lands, and one had once taught her a technique for manipulating wool into a fabric more quickly. She practiced the skill, and made it her own, and she was confident that she could do just as Gabriel had asked of her.

When the sheep finally went to the other side of the pasture, just as the reeds had said, Marinette went over to the bushes. They were composed of gnarled dark branches covered in thorns, and amongst the thorns, small bits of wool had caught in the branches. Marinette picked the wool out of the thorns, and after a while she had plenty for her plan. She went back over to the stream, sat on a rock, and got to work.


"But how!?" Adrien heard his father's angry roar, even from his room.

Adrien turned in his bed, his shoulder beginning to ache again. He winced. He was a god. Why wouldn't this injury heal?

He tightly gripped his shoulder, trying to ignore the pain coursing through him. He got out of bed, his curiosity overcoming all his other senses. His father never had visitors, and he never got this angry. The only time Adrien had heard Gabriel's voice at this volume was when his father was angry at him.

He walked through the halls as quickly as he could without making his shoulder feel worse. Eventually, he reached the main staircase, where he saw the last thing he had ever expected to see.

He found a hiding place quickly, where neither of the people down in the main hall could see him, and looked down, just to ensure that he wasn't hallucinating.

Standing down there, in his father's house, staring his father down, there was Marinette.

"Who helped you?!" Gabriel yelled, but Marinette said nothing.

Gabriel stared down at golden chain in his hand. He looked at it as though it were the filthiest thing in the world, and yet no matter where he looked, he couldn't find a flaw.

"How did you do this? Answer me!" The god demanded.

"It was a technique that I learned long ago. It's pretty quick once you get good at it." Marinette explained simply.

Gabriel fumed and threw the chain on the floor. "Get out of my sight! Tomorrow I'll have your next task prepared." Gabriel stormed out of the room, fury boiling in his cold eyes.

Marinette just smiled, and suddenly Adrien forgot all the pain in his shoulder. She was still so beautiful. It didn't matter to him that she was covered in dirt, or that her dress was torn to shreds, or that her hair didn't shine with its usual vibrance. That small, proud smile. That defiant attitude. Those were the things Adrien found beautiful.

Had she come all this way only for him? Had she challenged his father, just so they could reunite? Adrien's heart pounded in his chest. He couldn't believe that a mortal had gotten through a trial made by his father. And, what was even harder to believe, she had challenged Gabriel, a god notorious for his cold nature and fiery temper. And she did it all for him.

Adrien's vision blurred as tears threatened to spill out over his eyelids. Yes, Marinette had made a mistake, but the lengths she was going to to fix it… Adrien couldn't help but forgive her. She loved him, just as much as he did her. She loved him enough to challenge a god. She loved him enough to risk her life.

Adrien wanted to charge down the stairs and kiss her, but he knew that his father would find out if he interfered, at least directly.

Gabriel's servants soon came to lead Marinette out of the room, but Adrien lingered. He crept down the stairs, making sure that no one else was there, and picked up what his father had hurled to the ground.

It was a woven belt. Adrien didn't recognize the style of the weave, but even he could appreciate the simple beauty of the object. Marinette had made this by hand, and she had (indirectly) made it for him. Adrien took the belt up to his room, swearing that he would treasure the object always. He stared at it for hours, and just wished there was something he could do to help.

Then it hit him. Adrien smiled. He couldn't interfere directly, but that didn't mean he couldn't interfere at all...


Author's Note: I know it's been a couple of weeks, and I'm sorry. I'm just starting college, and so the last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. But I'm back now, and I'll try to finish this up before the end of next month. Thanks for sticking with me!